Indie Time: Gundemonium Collection Review

Rockin’ Android had setup their camp tucked away in a narrow hallway somewhere in the back-end of E3’s South hall showroom. For the uninitiated, Rockin’ Android is an American-based company that deals with the importing and localization of Japanese doujin games. They’ve already opened up a few of the most cherished games to come out of the Japanese indie scene to the rest of world, including titles such as SUGURI, Flying Red Barrel, and QLIONE. Their latest offering is the Gundemonium Collection, which I had the opportunity to try out at E3.

As I settled myself in front of the cabinet housing the PlayStation3 with Gundemonium running, one of the Rockin’ Android employees was on stand-by to give pointers and tips while playing. It wasn’t until later that I found out that the “employee” was actually the president of Rockin’ Android, Enrique Galvez. After chatting with him a bit, he commented on my shmup skills and handed me a PC copy of Gundemonium he happened to be carrying with him, with the intention that I review it for Kotowari. Considering the limited amount of time I was able to spend with the game at the booth, I eagerly accepted the PC copy and was more than happy to fulfill Mr. Galvez’s request.

As the title of the game implies, the Gundemonium Collection houses three danmaku, or bullet hell, shmups for you to indulge in. On offer is Gundemonium Recollection, GundeadliGne, and Hitogata Happa. All three were originally developed and released exclusively to Japanese audiences by the doujin circle PlatineDispositif. Demos of all their games are available on the official PlatineDispositif site, but it wasn’t until Rockin’ Android came along that we now have a fully localized and released version of what is arguably their most acclaimed series.

Each game has its own set of rules and gameplay techniques that you’ll have to master if you hope to make it past the first wave of enemies. Even so, they’re all very open to newcomers of the bullet hell genre and even the most novice of players will feel welcome to the Gundemonium Collection experience.

Gundemonium Recollection

The first game in the Gundemonium trilogy takes you to a re-imagined 18th century setting where alchemy plays the role of the end-all means to the world’s problems. However, when that same alchemy starts to be used for more nefarious purposes, it’s up to a young Alchemist named Eryth to set everything straight.

As is the case with most stories that deal with alchemy today, Recollection absolutely oozes with a steampunk aesthetic. Add that to a beautifully hand drawn, 2D art style and you have yourself a game with some stellar visuals. Some people might be detracted by the anime influence in the game, but the intricate, screen-filling bullet patterns should be enough to distract them from their less-than-favorable character design of choice. Oh, and what is a wonderful art style without an equally wonderful soundtrack to back it up? The best way I can come up with to describe the music in Recollection is “orchestrated trance”. Heavily synthesized chords and snare hits backed by fast-paced raver music in the background. It compliments the game by providing the perfect mood for a danmaku.

This particular danmaku is set on a horizontal plane, but instead of all the enemies filtering through the right side of the screen, they can show up anywhere to completely surround your character. You will have to be quick on your feet and mindful of your hitbox (indicated by a small heart located on you) so you don’t get completely destroyed by the onslaught of pretty, colorful bullets being aimed at you. A nice addition to this game is that character slow-down occurs when you use your main shot key. No need to worry about using another key – you can efficiently weave through bullets all while doing damage to the enemy.

There are two characters to choose from: the main character Eryth or one of the alchemic Earl types. Your weapons are your standard shmup fare, with one key being your primary shot, a magic attack that uses up a mana gauge near the top of the screen, and a third “bomb” type attack that will destroy nearly anything on screen. With the Earls, you have four different types to choose from and you can even choose an option to mix and match their weaponry. By far this is the best option for beginners, as it offers a lot more personal, customizable experience; the weapons on offer for the Earl types are much more powerful than what Eryth has to deal with.

GundeadliGne

On the outside, GundeadliGne looks to be the exact same game as Recollection. The story continues on after the first title: the settings looks the same, Eryth returns, and even the “orchestrated trance” music is heard in full within the soundtrack. What sets it apart from Recollection is that it gives the player the option to flip your character, so you can shoot your enemies from either side of the field. Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but it throws a gigantic wrench into the gameplay, creating a new, more challenging experience than what the first game attempted to achieve.

What this new gameplay effectively does is take a traditional horizontal field and puts an arena type shooter twist on it. Your key presses will have to be made in a more timely and precise fashion than the first game as you’ll have enemies flying at you from either side. While this adds a higher level of difficulty to the game, the key that the switch command is mapped to is a complete pain to work with – and the real kick in the nads comes from not being given an option to remap it. Sure, you can reassign your shot, magic, and bomb, but I guarantee that you won’t find a comfortable combination to play this game on a keyboard. This is why I suggest you use a good old-fashioned arcade stick with your PC to play, or my personal favorite, a SEGA Saturn controller with a USB connection that can be easily purchased off of eBay.

As mentioned above, Eryth makes a return, but the Earl types do not. Instead they’re replaced in favor of a new character by the name of Elixiar. As the Earl types before her, she becomes the new beginner type character for novices. She wields a scatter-shot type main weapon which can be held down to create a large, forward-moving beam for massive amounts of damage, as well as slow-down for weaving through complex bullet patterns. Your secondary magic shot has also been replaced with a total time freezing technique that will bring your enemies to an almost grinding halt. Definitely useful for those difficult patterns that seem impossible to get through, but with the aid of this new skill the task will become that much easier. Eryth on the other hand stays pretty much the same as her previous iteration, but with the exception that she now has several “Matrixes” to choose from which will be assigned to your bomb key. These are full-bodied spirits that can be summoned into battle to help in a number of ways – from creating barriers around Eryth to shield you from oncoming enemies, or to simply create a large shockwave that will destroy anything that comes in contact with it.

GundeadliGne successfully takes everything that made Recollection a fun, unique shmup experience and makes it even better. I find it pretty amazing that a game can be made to seem so fresh and new with just a simple change to the gameplay, like giving your character the option to shoot in the other direction. A 2-player cooperative mode is also on offer with GundeadliGne, and while I didn’t get the chance to test out this feature, I can only imagine the madness that could be had with two players on the screen. After trying out the hardest “Demonic” difficulty, co-op will be almost necessary in order to be able to complete it. If you ever do decide to pick up the Gundemonium Collection, then GundeadliGne will more than likely to be the one game in the trilogy to snatch up most of your playing time.

Hitogata Happa

The third and final game in the Gundemonium trilogy – and arguably the most difficult selection out of them all – is Hitogata Happa, or “person-shaped leaves”. This game decides to go in a completely different direction than the two previously mentioned titles. It reverts into a vertical-shooter, which is the more vanilla flavored plane for a danmaku shmup. PlantineDispositif took some cues from retro gaming as it hearkens back to those gaming days of old with a brutal difficulty and bosses that completely fill up the playing field.

In lieu of a ship or a living girl as your main character, you’re instead in control of small dolls that each follow a particular theme. There are 8 dolls in total and new ones can be purchased in a shop with points in between levels. Each new doll has its own primary shot and special ability, so it gives you more of an option to choose your own playing style. Be sure to try out many of the different dolls to find the one that best suits your danmaku needs. What’s also unique to Hitogata Happa is a “kamikaze” system that can be utilized with your dolls. At the top right of the screen is a “Flow” gauge that fills up as you blast away enemies. Once this gauge is full, you will see a little indication above your doll’s head that will tell you a bomb is ready. This is when you steer your doll straight into an enemy to do a serious amount of damage. While the prospect of blowing up one of my own dolls only leaves me with a feeling of heartbreak, this is a totally new mechanic that I’ve never seen used before in a shmup.

The difficulty for Hitogata Happa is what sets it apart from many other shooters in the genre. I’ve been playing shmups for a good portion of my 19 years as a gamer, and even with the game set to its easiest difficulty level I still found myself dying within only the first few minutes of playing. It wasn’t until I got a better understanding of my current doll’s ability – and the all-important “kamikaze” mechanic – that I even managed to pass the first boss. Shmup veterans will definitely gravitate the most towards Hitogata Happa in the trilogy, as it serves that important, masochistic drive that experienced players live off of.

Conclusions

As far as shmups go for the PC, it doesn’t get much better than this, folks. The Gundemonium Collection is also available for purchase on the PSN and you can even purchase each game individually instead of the bundle, though I would still suggest buying them all as a whole. PlantinDispositif did a fantastic job developing these games a few years back and Rockin’ Android did an equally amazing job localizing and releasing them on our shores. They’re doing a great service to gamers everywhere by giving us the opportunity to experience first hand the games that are coming out of such a rich scene as the Japanese doujin one.

As a relatively small and new company, it’s natural for the populace to assume that they wouldn’t do the best job possible that is required in releasing a video game, but Rockin’ Android passes the test with flying colors. That’s not to say there aren’t a few minor technical difficulties with some of the games – such as not having an option to exit a game during GundealiGne or even having the choice to skip the cutscenes in the game. These are minor issues that don’t affect the gameplay whatsoever. The option to play in window mode also doesn’t work for all three of the games on some PCs, and unfortunately my PC is one of them. This was a bummer to me since I usually prefer to play windowed with all PC games, but it’s still an easily-overlooked issue. Some players also complained about the lack of TATE mode for Hitogata Happa, but seeing how that game is closer to a 1:1 screen ratio, the lack of TATE is hardly an issue.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a veteran or a total newcomer to the world of shmups, the Gundemonium Collection will scratch that itch for danmaku lovers everywhere. You’re also getting a fantastic value with this collection, as you’re getting three titles bundled into one slick, physical copy. You simply can’t go wrong picking up this trilogy and as a fan of both shmups and the doujin gaming scene, I eagerly await what Rockin’ Android has in store for us next.

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